Illinois' last execution

Sunday

Jul 18, 2010 at 12:01 AMJul 18, 2010 at 5:03 PM

Before imposing a moratorium on executions in January 2000, Gov. George Ryan decided one death penalty case. In 1999, he turned down the appeal of Andrew Kokoraleis, who had been convicted of the abduction, rape and murder of a woman in Elmhurst.

Before imposing a moratorium on executions in January 2000, Gov. George Ryan decided one death penalty case. In 1999, he turned down the appeal of Andrew Kokoraleis, who had been convicted of the abduction, rape and murder of a woman in Elmhurst.

On March 16, 1999, Kokoraleis, 35, was executed by lethal injection at Tamms Correctional Center for the 1982 ritual mutilation and strangulation of Lorraine Borowski, a 21-year-old secretary at a real estate office who had been abducted on her way to work.

His brother, Thomas Kokoraleis, also was convicted of the murder. He received a life sentence.

"This was like a Manson-type cult," Andrew Kokoraleis' defense attorney, Alan Freedman, argued at the time. "But in this particular case, there's a high likelihood my client didn't do it. I'm not going to vouch for anything else."

The defense also unsuccessfully claimed that new information cast doubt on the credibility of confessions by two other co-defendants. Kokoraleis was the first (and so far the only) prisoner executed at Tamms, the super-maximum-security prison in southern Illinois.

Between the time capital punishment was reinstated in 1977 and Ryan's moratorium in 2000, Illinois freed 13 men from death row and put 12 to death.

That record prompted Ryan to suspend executions and order a commission to study the issue.

He said he had agonized over the Kokoraleis case and ultimately decided there was no doubt about his guilt.

"It was an emotional, exhausting experience that I wouldn't wish on anyone," Ryan said at the time.